Welcome to "Dust, Tears & Dice", a blog dedicated to the hobby of miniature wargaming.
If you fancy gaming periods off the beaten track then this is the place for you.
I am a regular member of The Wyvern Wargamers, formerly The Evesham Wargames Club drawing gamers from Worcester, Redditch, Kidderminster, Cheltenham and Stratford.
All players welcome.

Sunday, March 19, 2017

Pistols at Dawn - A Cutlass! Scenario

After a few weeks of slowly plugging away at the Smugglers and Marines time to give them some table time and a refresh of the rules before considering how a rolling campaign campaign might look.

A very small scenario with a party of smugglers who have rowed up river and are looking to retrive their landed goods from a barn at the far side of town. The Government forces need to stop them.

I priced up each of the figures and armed them with what they were cast with, that provided me with $493 worth of privateers and $466 worth of Marines pretty even or so I thought.

The Smugglers split in to two groups looking to make there way through the town. Armed with Cutlass and Axes I should have guessed that they might be quite tasty in Hand to Hand.

The Marines step out into the street looking to block their path - A cornish stand off.

After the occasional pistol and musket shot one of the Marines looks to take advantage of a spooked smuggler and moves on the first group of tax dodgers. A poor idea on my part as a poor authority roll on the next turn allows the smugglers to surround the brave yet foolish trooper.

Meanwhile in the main street the Captain of the guard is confronted by to members of the gang has they attempt to rush forward to support the lone trooper.

With the bulk of the patrol now drawn into an uneven brawl a number of the Marines are cut down, their muskets no defence against slashing Cutlasses and one Mariner who armed with nothing but a long spear dispatches two of the government men - Those exploding dice can be deadly.

The customs men are forced to withdraw.

The morale of this encounter - don't be cocky just because you have a flash uniform and play to your strengths, Marines are far better at standing back and shooting at their enemy rather than wading in with the bayonet it will only end badly.

After a few turns the rules turned at to be far more tactical in their nature than the original read through suggested, do you hold back on activations or use them all at once?

Attacking players from the side gives you an advantage but you in turn need to protect your flanks.

Once you are in combat your activations are soon used up reducing the ability to bring reinforcements in.

Plenty to think about in the next outing - Now to read the campaign element.